1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to refrigerated food and drink storage units, and in particular, to compact drawer refrigerators in which the storage space is defined by one or more pull-out door drawers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Refrigerators and coolers for the cold storage of food and beverage items are well known. Many conventional refrigerators and beverage coolers have one or more doors that are hinged to the front side of the cabinet. Food and beverages are ordinarily stored on shelves in the cabinet and the door(s) as well as in slide out crisper drawers near the bottom of the cabinet. This is common for industrial and residential refrigerators and beverage coolers as either full-size standup units or compact, under-cabinet units.
Drawer refrigerators are also well known in which the doors are replaced by pull-out drawers having bins in which the food is stored. Drawer refrigerators can be preferred in certain applications, such as low, under-cabinet applications, because the food items can be slid out of the cabinet in the drawer and thereby be accessed more easily. Often such drawer refrigerators have two, or possibly more, pull-out drawers that are arranged side by side or vertically stacked one above the other so that not all of the items are stored in the same drawer.
One problem with stacked drawer refrigerators is that there is considerable temperature variance between the two drawers, such that one drawer, typically the lower drawer, gets colder than the other. This can frustrate the user because, for example, in order for the upper drawer to be at the desired temperature, the lower drawer may be at a temperature that is colder than it should be for beverages or other items. This can be avoided by using two separate evaporator assemblies for each drawer, but at considerable expense. Or, the refrigerator can have a single evaporator, likely at the bottom of the unit, and an active airflow control assembly, such as including movably louvers and an air mover. Again, however, this adds considerable expense to the unit as well as occupies additional space in the interior which could otherwise be used for cold storage.
Another common issue with drawer refrigerators (with any number or arrangement of drawers) is the efficient allocation of space, that is how to maximize storage capacity within standard height, width and depth dimensions while keeping the items easily accessible. This is a particularly difficult issue to address in drawer refrigerators because of their inherent lack of shelving, unlike conventional hinged door refrigerators, which makes it easy to store items vertically above one another without making them difficult to access, as would be the case if the items were stacked directly on top of each other.
Accordingly, an improved drawer refrigerator with more uniform cooling and improved storage capacity and accessibility features is desired.